1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner with an auxiliary electrical heater for discharging warm air and a electrical dust collector for purifying room air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A general air conditioner includes a heating apparatus for supplying warm air by heating cold room air and a cooling apparatus for supplying cold air by cooling warm room air. Besides, a heating and cooling apparatus of an the air conditioner is also marketed for a dual function of heating and cooling operations including an air purifying function for cleaning the polluted room air.
FIGS. 1-5B illustrate an indoor unit of a conventional heating and cooling apparatus (generally referred to as an air conditioner). As shown in FIG. 1, the indoor unit (1) is provided with a suction inlet (3) at a lower front portion thereof to admit room air and with a discharge outlet (7) at an upper front portion thereof to discharge the heat-exchanged air, i.e., the heated or cooled air, that is sucked through the suction inlet (3).
Furthermore, disposed across the discharge outlet (7) are horizontal vanes (9) and vertical vanes (11) for respectively controlling the vertical and horizontal directions of the air discharged indoors therethrough. A cover member (13) is attached for forming an external appearance of the indoor unit (1) and for protecting interior arts at the indoor unit (1). An operating part (control panel) (15) is also disposed at a lower portion of the cover member (13) for controlling overall operational modes (auto, cooling, dehumidifying, blowing, heating, etc.) of the air conditioner, for starting or stopping an operation thereof and setting the amount and direction of the air discharged through the discharge outlet (7).
Suction inlet opening, and closing means (100) is provided to open the suction inlet (3) for readily sucking room air therethrough while the air conditioner is in operation, and to close the suction inlet (3) for preventing dust, foreign material and the like from being induced and for having a better appearance while the air conditioner is maintained at an operation stand-by state.
As shown in FIG. 2, there is provided an electrical dust collector (17) disposed at an inner lower side of the suction inlet opening and closing means (100), the dust collector (17) being integrated with an electrifying part for breaking down and ionizing dust particles of the room air by using high voltage and a dust collecting part for attracting the ionized dust particles onto a dust collecting plate of an opposite electric charge. Also, odors are removed from the air.
In addition, a refrigerant-conducting indoor heat-exchanger (19) is disposed downstream of the electric dust collector (17) for heat-exchanging into cold or warm air the room air sucked through the suction inlet (3) by way of evaporative latent heat of the coolant. An indoor fan 23 is disposed over the heat-exchanger (19) and is rotated by an indoor fan motor (21) for sucking the room air through the suction inlet (3) and for discharging through the discharge outlet (7) the air heat-exchanged at the heat-exchanger (19). A duct member (25) encompasses the indoor fan (23) for guiding the flow of the air sucked through the suction inlet (3) and discharged through the discharge outlet (7).
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the suction inlet opening and closing means (100) includes a pair of grille vertical side frames (110) designed for easy attachment and detachment, a pair of guide members (120) at inner sides of respective grille side frames (110), a horizontal frame member (130) interconnecting upper ends of the grille side frames (110) for maintaining a gap therebetween, driving means (140) disposed between the lower ends of the guide members (120) for maintaining the gap between the guide members (120) and for being driven by the supply of power, a pair of slider members (150) at external sides of respective guide members (120) for being raised or lowered with respect to the guide members (120) by the driving means (140), a plurality of suction grilles (160) hinged to inner sides of respective guide members (120) for being vertically rotated about horizontal axis to open or close the suction inlet (3) in response to the rising or lowering of the slider member (150), and a plurality of auxiliary slider members (170) vertically movable with respect to the slider members (150) against a spring bias.
The guide members (120) include at the inner rear ends thereof a pair of vertical filter guide rails (121) for permitting a filtering member (19) to be installed. A plurality of circular hinge holes (122) are formed in the guide members (120) to rotatably mount hinge axles (162) disposed at both ends of the suction grilles (160). A plurality of guide slots (123) are formed in the guide members (120) for slidably receiving pins 161 of the suction grilles (160) to guide a rotary movement of the grilles (160) and setting an effective stroke distance therefor.
Furthermore, the driving means (140) includes a motor (141) disposed at an inner bottom side of one of the guide members (120) and a rotary shaft (143) installed between the lower ends of the guide members (120) for transmission of the driving force of the motor (141) to pinions (142) mounted on respective guide members (120). The pinions (142) are fixed at respective ends of the rotary shaft (143).
Each slider member (150) comprises: a lower toothed rack (151) to change rotating movement of the pinion (142) into rectilinear movement of the slider member. A plurality of drive slots (152) are formed in the slider members (150) at predetermined vertical intervals correspondingly to the guide slots (123). The pins (161) of the grilles (160) extend into respective drive slots (152) and are displaced thereby to rotate the grilles. A guide part (153) is formed at an upper external side of each slider member to enable the auxiliary slider member (170) to ascend higher than the upper end of the slider member (150) by way of a spring bias or to descend as low as the upper end of the slider member (150) by a spring compression.
Furthermore, hitching jaws (151a) protrude from both ends of each rack (151) to prohibit the respective pinion (142) from breaking away when the slider member (150) is making a vertical rectilinear movement.
Each suction grilles (160) includes a pair of the axles (162) protruding from opposite ends thereof to be rotatably mounted in the hinge holes (122) formed in the guide members (120) and a pair of the pins (161) which are inserted into the slots (152) of the slider members (150) after passing through the guide slots (123) of the guide members (120). The axles (162) are shorter than the pins (161) to facilitate the operation of the slider members (150).
In the air conditioner having dual functions of heating and cooling operations, one of the pinions (142) is rotated directly by the motor (141) and the other pinion (142) is rotated by the rotary shaft (143) if the proper operation key of the control panel or remote controller is depressed. The pinions (142) lower the slider members (150). When the slider members (150) are lowered, the slots (152) on the slider members (150) are simultaneously moved downwards and pass across the guide slots (123) to displace the pins (161) of the suction grilles (160). Therefore, the suction grilles (160) are rotated about the hinge axles (161) to open the inlet (3) as shown in FIG. 5A. The grilles are caused to reach to their open (or closed) state simultaneously.
At this time, detecting switches (not shown) disposed at predetermined locations are activated to inform of the opening of the inlet (3), whereby the motor (141) stops, and the electric dust collector (17) is actuated. At the same time, the indoor fan motor (21) is driven to rotate the indoor fan (23).
If the indoor fan (23) is driven, the dust floating in the room air is sucked through the suction inlet (3) into the indoor unit (1) where the dust is broken down into minute particles and ionized with a positive electric charge to be attracted to the dust collecting plate (not shown) for disposal. Then, the purified air is guided upwards to be discharged indoors through the discharge outlet (7), thereby completing the air cleaning operation.
If the operation key is turned off during the air cleaning operation, the electrical dust collector (17) and the indoor fan motor (21) are simultaneously stopped. The motor (141) is driven in reverse to raise the slider members (150).
At the same time, the slots (152) of the slider members (150) push upwards the pins (161) of the suction grilles (160) to close the suction inlet (3), as shown in FIG. 5B.
At this time, if a predetermined time (i.e., the experimentally collected data for a time period beginning when the opening detecting switches of the suction inlet are turned on and ending when the suction inlet is closed, about 9.5 seconds) elapses it is concluded that the suction inlet is closed and the motor (141) is stopped, thereby returning to the operation stand-by state of the air conditioner.
If a key is actuated to stop the warm air cleaning operation with the operation key of the air conditioner being kept on, then the electrical dust collector (17) is turned off to return to an operation mode of the air conditioner occurring prior to the initiation of the warm air cleaning operation.
However, there is a problem in the conventional air conditioner in that the electrical dust collector (17) is located behind only a portion of the suction inlet (3) (for example, behind three lower grilles), so that the room air sucked through the suction grilles disposed above the dust collector (17) is not purified, thereby lowering the dust collecting efficiency in the air conditioner. There is another problem in the conventional air conditioner in that, when the air cleaning operation is performed on cold days in winter, cold air is discharged which creates an unpleasant feeling to the user and thereby discourages the user from taking advantage of the air cleaning operation during cold days.